Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-10-15
Why Not Take Warning?
(Hoof and Horn.)


 During the last week three killings took place in Arizona, which should serve as lesson to the most thoughtless. In one at Winslow, two cowboys-one the foreman of large cattle company, the other being his subordinate in the same company's employ-became involved in a groundless quarrel which terminated in the deaths of both. Both were friends, but crazed by drink each essayed to slay the other. Shots were exchanged and one fell to the ground so badly wounded that he at once recognized his race was run and ended his suffering by blowing out his brains with his pistol while his erstwhile friend rode out into the night, to be found next morning dead within a few miles of town. The other killing re- sulting from the same cause-whisky--- occurred at Bisbee, where a drink mad dened man without cause shot down deputy sheriff, and was shot and instantly killed by the mau he had wounded. Both were strangers to each other and never met before the shooting occurred. The third killing, from identically the same cause, occurred at Walnut Grove on Wednesday last, the victim coming to his death at the hands of a former friend whom he had no apparent reason assailed and attempted to kill with knife. In every case the term of cowboy has been attached to the names of the de- ceased, and while no one will for an in- stant claim tEat the great mass of cow men are of such a character as to become involved in drunken brawls of this de- scription, yet none will deny that there are few whose proneness to imbibe ren- der them liable to the fate which has overtaken the men whose deaths we have chronicled. It IS to these last, in all friendliness, we say: Boys, give whisky wide berth. ''Touch not, taste not handle not" and you will be the gainel by it. The friends you may lose by ab- staining are not worth retaining, for tht man whose friendship must be bough
 with rum is too cheap to tie to. What ever you may lose by steering clear O the snares of the treacherous stuff in thi
 way will be more than recompensed fo
 by your gain ill self-respect and your bet tered standing in the community wher
 fate has cast you. All right-minded men whether they be thems selves drinkers o
 not, will honor you for your principles Il | pTOpOTLlOH IO JHO "AOi which you maintain them. Don't be le'
 astray. Learn how to say mo-" an'
 when you say it stay with it till-we wer
 about to add "h--l freezes over," bu
 we won't, as it might shock some of ou ,, straight-laced friends. Anyhow, sta,
 with it, and whenever you feel the slight est temptation to Timber up just thin how many good fellows who have gon , down to their graves through rum, am , cinch yourself up to the sticking poin , that you may not yourself fill one of tn , lonely graves that are found in nearl , every locality of the West. Graves file by the noblest, the bravest, the best-b
 men whose warm, sympathaictic nature ,, led them in good fellowship to drink while the cold -blooded and clamier sut jects loved their dollars too well to giv
 them up in any such way. How thos
 desolate mounds that dot our plains coul 3 talk if tongues were but given them , What tales of home, of a mothers word and a mothers face, of the last sad part
 ing to seek fortune in the West, an then the journey downward to only en when life went out ill some drunke bra VI or wild delirium. And what niigh a | nave -D6en.-11OHSa had It not been fc f whisky, the soft-cheeked girl, whose in f age never did grow dim-even when tn
 eye was blearitst and the brain most fud dled-might have been something deare , and nearer than all else on earth. Boyi we don't intend to sermonize, simply be cause we know that we can't tell yo anything about the subject that you don t know as well as any man that ever lived r If you have ever tried it, you know tn f heart aches and the humiliation 1t hs
 brought you until you thought as man another has thought before you, that f might be well to end all with your ow : revolver. Take our advice and let tn g stuff alone. We ourselves have bee e somewhat scorched in a go-as-you-pleas e contest with it of some years duration f and when we tell you that the only wa n possible to beat the whisky game is to lt j. it severely alone, we know we are tall
 ing gospel truth that neit her you nor an e other man can gainsay.